v18: noir&blanc

sherlene

the girl's 18. stuck on a small island, also known as the little red dot on the global map. presently living a mundane life contributing to the unemployment rate and chionging driving lessons are what she does nearly daily. well, here records some of the interesting and amusing moments she enjoys. :D

turns 365 days older on the 7th of Nov and is deeply in love with the colour purple. currently indulging in SUPER JUNIOR! :D

Super Junior M - 迷 (Me)

get it in stores 2 or 9 May depending on your region!

favourites

corkboard

statistics

hooligans crashed & graffitied.

currently hooligan(s) rotting here.

extreme tracker

Sonntag, Dezember 31

last post of 2006 11:43 PM

okay i shall just update briefly some important parts of 2006 cos im like rushing for time yet im still slacking and not doing any homework and that sucks.

this year has been a whole rojak of a year, meeting lots of new friends and people, gaining lots of experience and all.. yeap.

jan
first day of school was horrible, i rmb calling banana to like 訴苦 cos i was quite miserable on getting in to tpjc. oh wells, i was wrong. instead i met different people that coloured my life in a different sort of way, and im really thankful for there.

got posted into og4 of the rolling stones and i must say my og rocked. :) thank you shauna, geraldine, missy, leesi, weijin, salleh, edwin, romario etc, those who were closer, and the ogls chaos, karin and bernie! you really made me feel that tpjc was more fun than i expected!

forged serious bonds of friendships there, with my class 06s22; huitian, xuejun, raihana, charlie, bryan, yukai, raymond etc. esp those days hanging out at huitian's house mahjonging and bridging and the pizzas and all those scandalous crap. haha. classes with you guys were super interesting!

and most importantly, other friends i made at tp which i'd never forget, esp the marche gang, shauna bert and charlie, hope we can meet each other more to catch up yeah! i love you all! :D

feb
10 feb 2006. i still rmb the date cos we were gonna get our o's results. by the grace of God i managed to get a miraculous 10 points (raw) and im very thankful for that. and when people say you must work hard to attain your success, i wonder what degree of working hard do they mean. i guess working smart plays a big part too, i.e spotting questions and skipping the other topics, since our spotting was pretty, erm spot-on? haha. thanks to all the teachers at tk who really helped us, really grateful for that.

and when short ang broke to me the news on getting 10 i practically burst out in tears la. and then i still rmb chaos calling 1st hand to kaypoh on his ogms results. haha. oh well. really happy to all those friends who did well too. esp simino! :D jiayou for a's yeah!

march
was the first time we actually got posted to our 2nd intake jc. and well, i wouldnt call it 'suay' but, probably by fate? i got posted to sa. and i would have admitted it was shocking cos it was my 7th choice but they say lucky 7 huh. :) haha.

pretty much a blessing in disguise, cos i knew many of the bowlers there and then there was the kl trip with the seniors in march. bonded much with the seniors! but before that. orientation. it was cool. with a new and different og. but sadly, there were all from the same og before so those newcomers were slightly outcasted? but we managed to work out well in the end esp during induction yeah! haha. those people who are closer friends in my og, i am really thankful to have known you guys, jingyi (my kuatiogui!), amanda the blur sotong, yonghui, chowyunfatt, mitchell, chinpin, yubin etc etc.

then came my class. 06S23. its quite an appeal class with people transferring in from arts fact or thru ccas. was kinda awkward with a brand new class at first with 5 girls and 19 guys but it turned out pretty well. im very happy with them!

and the taipei trip during the march holidays with grace. the 56 concert in taipei was magnificent! though i felt singapore's was much higher but the diff atmosphere in taipei made it equally cool too. and my first time chasing stars abroad. ahaha. went to settv, saw yurong! :D and taiji etc. and kone! sigh miss them man. jr and kido ("v") !

and my first trip with a friend! :D had much fun with grace in taiwan. i seriously think travelling with friends will be so much more fun esp going to theme parks. i havent really found anyone to go theme parks with me. anyone? haha.

the other months
ok the other months were kinda boring cos it was just a blink and they were pretty much gone.
a divs in may was cool. guys got 1st girls 2nd. so proud of the seniors and us too! jiayou everyone! phuket in june was fun. :) really enjoyed parasailing and jetskiing.

then the other months were kinda of a drag. started tuition. had block cas. had more tests. struggled with physics. and blah blah and came promos and i managed to erm pull through it. thankfully.

and now its almost 2007 already and im turning 18 next yr. how fast that sounds eh.

well, here comes for the special people in my life.
royals; thank you all for the special memories that i'd never forget my whole life ahead! our sleepover at the yacht club was super fun! hahaa and laughin with you guys really brightened my life. to those i am closer too; maggie, kh, denyse, yx and banana! i love you guys! and not forgetting ry and jo, please try to come for more gatherings then we can all hang out together! yay!

banana; thank you for being there when i felt miserable and when i had no one to talk to. you are my twin so we must stay twins yeah! really thankful for having you as one of my better friends and hope our friendship will stay strong! ;D

yx; though you have changed thru this year, i am very thankful for knowing you the longest in the royals! to those chatting sessions last yr which lasted for so so long. haha. :D jiayou ok! no more probs on guys like erm your kor! haha. =X

maggie, kh, denyse; really glad to have known you guys better this yr! thank you maggie for planning our gatherings! you're ever so organized! haha. kh thank you for your chatting sessions with 56! i think only us and kency chow are like still into 56 now? haha. denyse! thanks for your late night sessions at the yacht club and many more memories ahead! ;D

to my girls in class;
annabel, belinda, lena & chiewyong ; thank you all for being my better buddies in class! for all those times and fun! and those joking sessions and eyecandying sessions! love you all! hope our friendship will be stronger in the years to come and we must all jiayou yeah! we must pull through all obstacles together! and fend off all disasters! fwahhhh~ jzack all of them! heh.

all the guys in class;
really glad to have known you all! we must all work hard together and face the wrath of JY and L*T and L*L in the coming year! we can all do it im sure! ;D

my pw group (cy, colin, bob and ernest);
really great to have pulled through pw with you guys my fellow 'terrorists' haha. hope we do well for pw and then all those sessions will pay off! work hard everybody! :D

shauna, bert and charlie; really really happy to have you all as my closer friends. esp bear, my crazy shit sis! :D jiayou jiayou! hoping to share more ahem. secrets with you and many more spastic times ahead!

kristen; thanks for being there when i needed you and all those crazy times of my crapping. you're one real great friend. cant wait to catch up soon!

simino; thanks for all the study sessions and everything! we must have study sessions next yr too ok! :D

other than that, i cant really think of other people but thank you all for being in my life! esp my family and friends! love love love you all!

class bbq and etc 12:44 AM

class bbq yesterday was a very unplanned one. but it turned out quite okay. managed to get like 15 people to come (or maybe less). we bought marshmallows from parkway to barbeque. yes, we merely bbqed marshmallows. and my taught-by-uncle-paul fire was quite successful! yay. haha.

and then we bought macs to eat for dinner.
and the surprising thing was, i saw dwayne tan there.

sometimes, i wonder whether my sixth sense is so strong, i actually felt that i'd see someone i know there like before i saw him. anyway, his bbq pit was 2 pits away from mine.

and then we were quite pathetic without any food to bbq so i went to dwayne's to steal some, until i saw mr ng cooking the food for them!

such a coincidence. been quite long since we last saw him. and there was supposed to be some christmas gathering for the tk girls. well, erm, cuifang and i sorta agreed to have one but it didnt turn out. yeap. so yeah. kind mr ng gave me 1 cheese hotdog. lol.

was glad to see him again. argh, was talking to aneesa last night and i miss tuition! sheesh. with all the guys crapping and all those jokes. ok nvm.

then us girls were like playing by the beach and then we bought sparklers to play and i think some sparks burned some skin on my foot. =X

the guys left close to 11 to bowl while the girls stayed at the bbq pit to play card games. haha. we got so high later on like after 11 playing card games we were like drunk and all.

left around 11.30pm for home.

---

family dinner was quite fun playing harry potter cluedo today! yay i won 1 round and ness won 1 round. haha. had delicious food and pretty good cousin bonding time (? i hope :P)

hahaha. so basically thats all. the prawns were nice and i had a cut on my finger when the shell pierced through my skin. sigh.

there's royals sleepover tmr! yay! :D
i cant wait to cook some food. okay actually i like cooking just that im like out of bounds of the kitchen. anyway its 31 dec already! i should be bringing my lappy to kh's and erm. try to finish up history? haha. ok im being over-ambitious.

ah heck.
until then,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Freitag, Dezember 29

unwritten II 10:37 AM

is enjoying 1.5 months of holidays really enough?
im feeling as sian as ever, no motivation to mug or do some productive work.
help, someone just kill me please.

AND there's so many things coming up,
class outing later, new yr's sleepover, jacq's 1 yr old party, tuition...
where am i gonna find time to slot in like

18 physics long questions
1 physics tutorial
1 math tutorial
remaining math qns from the set of worksheets
2.5 econs essay qns
1 case study
2 history essay qns
1 history tutorial qn

ok, i am officially dead. and i for once actually believed i could chiong it out before sch reopens. i am so wrong, it so happens that i don't seem to know myself at all.

bleah.

i think i almost killed my com by installing the logon studio crap thing. my lappy seems to have slowed down abit. i uninstalled it but its still there! sob. please dont give me a shock la... i hope its okay.

anyway, i find this melody very... 動人. haha, don't know how to describe it but i love this song!

黃立行：無神論

死亡是不是終點會停止想念
不能再親吻你的臉不管我有多懷念

oh i was watching 百分百 last night. 小豬 mentioned about not coming/ coming to sg. ok it was confusing. and 小鬼 was damn cute. he called youtube, you-to-be. HAHA. right.

i just hope 小豬 comes. though i thought i heard him say avex wouldnt let him or something. nvm, taiwan's the best =D

oh 曹格's new album's out today! erm okay. i find him very interesting and talented.
right, adieu.

Donnerstag, Dezember 28

something out of boredom 2:45 PM

-sherlene says:
linin
-sherlene says:
you better mug hard cos its o's for you next yr!
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
ahahaha, im doing zuowen okaaay!
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
im a good girl
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
: DD
-sherlene says:
yeah right
-sherlene says:
i bet jaejoong held you at knife point and forced you to sit down and get some work done
-sherlene says:
then you started doing right
-sherlene says:
LALALALALALA
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
no
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
neverrrr
-sherlene says:
im so smart
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
but i dont mind if jaejoong points a knife at me
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
i'll do it : DD
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
kido point knife at you ah!
-sherlene says:
yeah and slit your throat and he's a VAMPIRE in disguise
-sherlene says:
and he;ll suck your blood out
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
NOO
-sherlene says:
and drink and laugh like some evil idiot
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
HE'S NOT
-sherlene says:
MUAHAHAHAHAHHAA
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
he's a nice kid
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
: DDD
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
and he's not an idiot
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
heh heh
-sherlene says:
pretty boys are vampires in disguise
-sherlene says:
i suspect teppei's one of them
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
AHAHAHA
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
okay the teppei one i agree
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
BUT NOT JAEJOONG'S.
-sherlene says:
he's an even more prettier boy than teppei
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
no lorrr
-sherlene says:
yes
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
jaejoong very MAN okay
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
: DDD
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
wo xi huan
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
hahahaha
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
then liyang also pretty boy ah!
-sherlene says:
no he isnt
-sherlene says:
anw i dont like liyang wad
-sherlene says:
so ok
-sherlene says:
if he's a vampire than good luck to kido
-sherlene says:
JAEJOONG IS SUCH A VAMPIRE
-sherlene says:
COS HE'LL SUCK CHAN LININ'S BLOOD OUT
-sherlene says:
UNTIL SHE TURNS PALE
-sherlene says:
AND DIES IN HIS ARMS!
-sherlene says:
whahahaa
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
ahahahahaha
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
OKAY
-sherlene says:
ok actually you wouldnt mind dying in his arms right
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
I'LL DIE IN JAEJOONG'S ARMS
-sherlene says:
ohwells
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
i dont mind
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
ahaha, BINGO, you know me so well
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
: DDD
-sherlene says:
see im so nice
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
then he'll suck your blood out
-sherlene says:
i actually spared a thought for you
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
while i die in his hands
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
ahahaha
-sherlene says:
nah i wouldnt even be near him anyway
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
you can pull the rest of dbsk along
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
and they can suck all my blood out
- LIXIN^麗欣 says:
i dont care, as long as i die in their hands.

xxxxx

disclaimer; no offence to JAEJOONG or TEPPEI. we were just reallly bored. :P ok, more like i was.

new com! 12:52 AM

okay. im beginning to hate the terror of time.
heck it.

:)
im happy with my new laptop.
okay.
shall er. go hibernate.

Dienstag, Dezember 26

happy boxing day 8:31 PM

its almost 2007! 7 is my lucky number! so hopefully 2007 will be a GREAT year! :D

not time to do reflections yet though. haha.

am supposedly reading through my archives now. having a blog to record down past memories is uber cool. as in, i can seriously visualize the same scene i was experiencing years back.

nvm,
my laptop's coming tmr! yayayayay!
and kh's organizing countdown!
double happiness.

then again, still stuck with tons of work.
goodness.
stupid physics. =/

and i cant seem to switch over to the new blogger thing. with the google account. nvm.

:D yay.
sch seems exciting with new j1s!
gosh i feel so old. we're seniors again.

Montag, Dezember 25

christmas eve 10:01 PM

the wonderful christmas fantasy menu which cost $49.90++

sliced turkey with fresh fruits
(the turkey was quite pathetic la. 2 slices, but it was nice)

double boiled superior shark's fin with red wine
(ok its not that clear but the shark's fin is in chunks and not slices like in normal 'goo-ey' shark's fin soup, super high class. haha.)

stuffed scallop with prawn paste doused with crab roe
(this was nice! cant really taste the crab roe but the good quality scallop was there.)

braised cod fillet with goose liver mousse
(the fish was super tender and tasty and the goose liver was well, liverish. haha.)

baked fried rice with honey ham & white cream sauce served in crab shell
(oh this was nice. i like baked rice!)

baked egg tart with cheese
(finally, our dessert, the egg tart just melts in your mouth)

in the car, driving along orchard road just before the clock struck 12.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xxxxx

one of my few fine dining experiences. dad's been getting vouchers from raffles town club so he brought us there to eat. nice food! yay there'll be more chances of going to the jap restaurant! yay. but its super ex.

hmmm. my laptop's coming on wed. hooray. im super slacking when its the last week of hols. damnit. havent completed my hols hwk yet.

I MISS BANANA. :(
i miss our quarreling. so deprived of happy times. and overwhelmed with miserable hwk.

bah. life's sucking man.

taiwan trip part 5 4:00 PM

Day 10 (10 dec, sun)
Woke up pretty early to go to Leofoo Village 六福村 which is further down north-west in Hsinchu. Waited at the bus stop near Zhongxiao-Fuxing (I think) for the ego bus when some guy tried to convince us and 2 other Taiwanese boys into going into his cab. In the end we got cheated cos we paid TRIPLE the price just to get there. And the ego bus was quite fast too. But the cabby kinda bluffed us by saying it took way longer. So don’t get cheated! Take the ego bus! Only NT200 for a RETURN trip.

Anyway, went there like slightly after it opened. Was kinda scared to go on the rides first cos usually dad would be there with me. Now, its me, myself and I. Yep. Went on the Screaming Condor first. The ride I wanted to take.

The ride that 56 would always sit if they went there, the one always shown on Shaogong. Haha. I felt so daring to challenge the ride lor. Omg. It was freaky! Until now I still get jitters imagining the process of it.

Its this U-shaped rollercoaster but the left-end twirls upwards. And you go forward and backward with your legs dangling out. And the speed of it moving is probably 100km/h or maybe more. And before you can open your eyes, its like at the other end already. And I was so scared I still tried to open my eyes at the end. But I saw the blue sky and I got so freaked out la. So my eyes were closed all the while. But the speed is enough to like engulf you in fear already. And when it moves, the ground all around it will like vibrate. Haha. Fierce lor. Anyway I felt brave taking it. My bravest ride yet. Haha.

I conquered it!

Then after that went on a few rollercoasters. Felt that it was quite boring. That the rides didn’t really last long. Good in a way that those that you hate end fast but those that you like end so soon. They even have a safari inside. So it was quite cool to see the animals! I haven’t seen many animals in such a long time. Haha. giraffes, black bears, lions, tigers, baboons, ostriches, deers, rhinos, zebras etc. those that you can find in an African safari. Yep.

Left soon after 2am. There weren’t many people, although I heard that it would be quite crowded on a Sunday. But it wasn’t. so we ended up taking 1-3 mins queueing for rides! Super fast one! Haha I enjoyed the river rapids ride. I like those family rides where it isn’t that thrilling but good enough to surprise the whole family, young or old. Haha. Besides, the rides weren’t that fantastic either. Below my expectations… I still very much prefer Disneyland! Haha. ok maybe im just biased. A pure Disney fan here!

other pics at Leofoo:

Then after that, went back to Taipei on the ego bus. And headed on to mrt towards Danshui 淡水 station. Then transferred bus to the Fishermen’s Wharf 漁人碼頭. Sadly it was quite a cloudy day and we didn’t get to see the sunset. It’s a nice wharf-y place with boats and fresh squid! Super yummy with some sweet sauce and wasabi! Freshly caught like less than 15 mins ago and then they boil it and serve it immediately! And its worth it too! And then we walked the Lover’s Bridge (not sure what its called in Chinese) and around the area before heading back to the mrt station there, where Danshui Old Streets 淡水老街are situated.

The actual 老街 is quite boring except for the Sanrio shop! Haha. oh man I feel so guilty. Just kept using my mastercard to pay and pay! Bought my kuromi stuff there again! Yay. And then walked the one which we thought at first was the 老街 but it wasn’t. it’s a row of night market-ish stuff. Got a lot of small accessories and stuff! And post-its! Lol. After that we went back to rest for the last day. =(

Day 11 (11 dec, sun)
I woke up early but cousin said she thinks she sprained her leg. Anyway walked aimlessly around Ximending. The whole of Ximending actually, including the outskirts before all the shops in Ximending itself actually opened. Had my dumplings 餃子 at the corner breakfast shop. I love dumplings! Yummy. Kept having them there! Haha. someone buy me dumplings and you’ll make me happy!

Walked and walked and explored before xmd finally opened at about 11am! Argh. And shopped more to spend ALL our money. Lol. I think I walked the main xmd shopping area like 5 circles. Cousin went shopping herself while I went to find my other stuff. And got my cute Puma bag! And more socks. Well practical la.

Finally at about 2+ we rushed back to the hotel to take the bus to the airport. Sad la. Haha we kinda forgot the time and I was running back and all.

Was hoping to see 56 at the airport cos they were supposed to arrive at about 5+ but instead their plane got delayed and then they were scheduled to arrive at 6 instead. How unfortunate. My boarding time was at 6 too. Anyhow. 56 was at t2. While we were at t1.

xxxxx

I spent a lot on this trip la. Wondering where all my money had gone too. Accommodation and souvenirs and transport I guess. Train tickets there don’t come cheap. Just from Hualien to Taipei alone is about 25 sing already. and then I spent almost 200+ with my debit card. Wah… sad man. I need to start saving some money soon. Feeling so guilty buying lots of stuff. But in the end, I still regret not buying some worth it but materialistic wants. Like the Disney Birkenstocks I saw at Shilin! So nice and like about 100 only? Which is reasonable since Birks are like very overpriced. And I also wanna get the Adidas adizero series running shoes which I saw there. Its super light la! You feel like your feet aren’t bounded by the shoes and its like… S$40 cheaper there than in Singapore! Sob.

Okay I don’t mind going back to Taipei again! And maybe Alishan. I’d give Kaohsiung a pass though. Too polluted already. Hualien wasn’t too bad! Sun Moon Lake again is a must! Maybe the next time I’d head down to Tainan or Taitung. :D

heh.heh. and taiwan is filled with celebrities! ok, well posters of them.

i actually wanted to take a pic with the xiaozhu one, but quite paiseh la. haha.

this is interesting huh. at the ximen mrt. lol. but i was wondering, are there more cameras around this area then? haha.

Sonntag, Dezember 24

taiwan trip part 4 2:24 PM

yay ok i finally typed finish everything last night. shall break up the last 4 days into 2 parts, so last part tmr, on xmas day itself!

today seems to be quite a boring xmas eve for me. nothing too exciting, cos the rain's spoiling my mood. moreover, my nose is blocked and my eyes feel very tired. bah.

Day 8 (8 dec, fri)
We planned a day tour for Taroko Gorge 太魯閣 today with some cabby. Ok la, he brought us to all the places but his commentary was lousy.  ohwells. We wanted another cabby at first but he was taken up by another group of Singaporeans. Yep.

Woke up and prepared for a 9am to 6pm journey. The drive to the gorge area was pretty long but the cabby/tour guide stopped by this beach place. 七星潭. Its actually a lake but it kinda looks more like a beach to me.

Then after that we proceeded on to the gorge. Stopped by this roadside stall selling sweet potato. And the sweet potato meat is purple! Cool huh! My fave colour! Haha. Then the tour guide sent us to the Taroko Gorge visitor center for us to watch some video and look at the exhibits and stuff. I fell asleep during the video la. Was too tired already. Haha. Then after that at about 11am, we started on a trail, think it was called the 砂卡礑步道, which the 砂卡礑溪 meanders along. The scenery is the nicest I’ve seen in ages la! I dunno but I like that white water rapids kind of thing, except this is much gentler and more serene. Haha. We walked like 6km I think! Super far and the path is quite narrow, while the river thing is quite far down, feels like you’re gonna fall off any second! Haha.

More scenic stuff:

And then we decided to rest awhile and take a dip in the river. So shiok la! Its cooling and rocky. Haha. Feels like natural 腳底按摩. Lol. But the rocks were slippery! And I slipped. Cos of the stupid algae on the rocks. And luckily my camera (ouch, poor cam) broke my fall and got a little scrape on its side. And my abscessed toe (yeah, it got an infection like at the beginning of the trip and pus was forming inside. Gross huh.) was abit dirtied. Stupid cousin took a pic of me fussing about my toe there. =X haha. Oops. But the water was really nice. So spring water-y kind. Haha.

Then after walking for so long until some dam, we decided to give up and walk back. Seriously tiring enough carrying my super heavy bag. And it was quite warm, but then it started to turn windy later on. Plus, my shirt and pants were wet from falling into the river. Ugh. =/ oh wells. It was cold.

Then had lunch at some stopover after that, before heading on to 天祥. There’s some bridge thing over there. Yep. Then after, we went to 九曲洞. It’s the tunnel of 9 turns. Its quite scary inside, cos its pitch dark, but the way civilization ploughs through to make roads is really magnificent. Wonder how they did it. And then after that we walked the 燕子口 Swallow’s Grottos. It’s some path opposite many huge swallow caves that swallows used to inhabit long time ago. Not now anyway, haha and sadly, there’s no bird nest there either. After that we stopped by a few places… like some suspension bridge which I was so scared of going on cos it was shaky. It was beside 岳飛’s memorial thing. Plus places like the 長春祠 Eternal Spring Shrine and the 禪光寺 Changuang Temple.

Visuals:

Basically after that, it was starting to get dark already. And that marked the end of our journey. And then our tour guide brought us to buy some muah chee to bring back for people. Haha. Not bad la. It tastes a wee bit different from the 九份 one. Then after that we deposited our muah chees, cos cousin bought a lot at the minsu before heading to some shopping area near 大遠百 shopping center. (I cant really rmb the name and I lost the map!) anyway went shopping around that area and bought quite a lot of stuff! Haha. I got hello kitty & selina cd-rs! Coolness. Then after that went back cos we had to head back to Taipei early next morning.

Day 9 (9 dec, sat)
Woke up early cos we had a 7.30am train back to Taipei. Reached Taipei around noon, before heading back to TS Hotel to dump our belongings. Before heading back to Ximending to eat my Ah Zhong Mee Sua! with pig intestine i think. haha not the oyster one. i think the pig intestine one is nicer than the oyster one. more flavourful?

Took a train to Rueifang 瑞芳 from Taipei Main Station, before changing to a bus up to Jinguashi 金瓜石 near Jiufen 九份. We thought it was some stone scenic area but its actually some historic place where old gold mines used to be. Lol.

Walked around the area! Full of stray dogs! One stray dog tried chasing me when I was eating my sausage. Oh man! Anyway yeah. Went inside, there were 3 museums. Went to 2 only cos we couldn’t find the last one. Haha. And there was this old mine journey thing where you could go in to explore the mine. Damn cool la! There’s like water dripping from the ceiling still. Its like those Changi fortress experience with wax figures inside depicting scenes from the past and all.

And then when we were entering, I saw a tb-lookalike! Haha but erm, cuter la. Lol. Then when we were going in the mine, we saw this group of international people. 2 afro-americans, and 2 japs I think. 1 guy 1 girl! The guy was cute! Haha. And they were like speaking in English! Like so happy to find someone else who speaks more English than the Taiwanese. Haha. And cousin was like, ‘want me to help take a picture?’ and the jap guy readily agreed! Kawaii la he! Haha. =X ok. Random.
Then we went in and explored. Real cool experience. If only they had the ride thing that goes into the mine. Then it’ll be so much fun!

After much walking and exploring and the stupid rainy weather in Taipei, we moved on to Jiufen 九份. Wahlao. Sickeningly crowded! It’s a Saturday, but it was rainy! But super squeezy, filled with people!

Evidence:

Yep. Walked the usual shops, bought wooden clogs for mum and myself! But mum’s complaining her feet hurt in it. =X and got my fave black sesame muah chee! Went back to that shop but I couldn’t find my mickey mouse pen! Oh and then we passed by this small stall thing and saw renfu’s photo on it. And I tested the food and it was really nice! Some crispy pork floss thing. Its thin and can be broken into pieces with just a mere poke of the finger, but super delicious! Mum gobbled up the whole packet within 1 day ok. And it’s like 6 bucks. =( had my fave shark meat balls!

Yummy! And it was quite a cold day so it really warms you up inside. This time, we walked further in till the end where it overlooks the Pacific Ocean I think.

Later on, we took a bus back to Taipei. And then and then and then! I saw this uber shuai Jap guy on the bus la! Ok at first I was thinking whether he was Jap or not, cos he looked half-Jap, half-Taiwanese. Like 金城武 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) type. And his side view looks a lot like 坤達! Really very shuai. Its not cute, but shuai! And the girlfriend was chio also la. Then when we were alighting, cousin cut behind him, then I was behind cousin, I let the girlfriend go first and she muttered something in Jap. Haha. So polite of her! But she’s really pretty. Awww. Haha. Lena was like so excited over my description of him! But he’s really very shuai. Sad I didn’t get a pic. =X
Oops. Ok anyway after that, we took a train to Longshan Temple 龍山寺where the Snake Alley Night Market 華西夜市was. 3rd night market we’ve been to! Haha. 達倫 was there a few days before me on wanyu la! He was cracking fruits with his forehead. Haha and I saw that fruit stall with the lady boss I saw on tv too! Sadly I wasn’t there when he was. And he was there when I was at Sun Moon Lake. =( anyway, got more stuff there! Haha like name stickers! Much cheaper there than in Singapore la. I feel so cheated getting it here. Ahh. Anyway, since its called Snake Alley Night Market, there’s a few snake restaurants there.

And its quite gross. They actually have ‘live’ shows of snakes feeding on rats just to entice you to go in to eat. I saw the snake gobble down the rat. Well, it wasn’t bloody but pretty gross. Cousin was freaked out by it. And there was another restaurant which displayed a gut-slashed snake in front. Grossness. =X but it was a cool experience.

After that we were tired and we headed back for a good night’s rest and more Taiwanese variety shows! Yay!

Donnerstag, Dezember 21

unwritten 8:14 PM

sigh. in no mood to do something nice.

i shall update about the tw trip soon...
(well, soon seems to be an understatement now)
been so lethargic lately.

hmmm, when i dont want the hols to end, somehow, certain things happening remind me that its time to get back to reality, the busy schedule that i learned to cope with (or learning it again) and the many trials and tribulations that i'd have to face when school reopens.

anyhoo. im pretty looking forward to a new 2007.
hopefully.
it'll be a smooth journey as i sprint towards the finish line into my 12th year of education.

once again, this mv made me cry.. how touching. it never fails to climb high onto my 'favourite songs' list. lol.
S.H.E - 我愛你

if you wanna see the movie version, its here. awww, super sweet la.
and another song which i find bubbly yet the lyrics are so... heart-warming. :)
Kenji 吳克群 - 男傭

不管你站著　坐著　趴著　我在你左右
如果你累了　酸了　癱了　我幫你按摩
我做你的男傭　一天到晚上工　讓你越過越輕鬆
不管你醒著　睡著　夢著　我在你左右
如果你氣了　哭了　悶了　我幫你按摩
我是你的男傭　一週全年無休　讓你越過越輕鬆

ok, enough of the emo stuff. hah.
royals stayover on new yr's eve at kh's!
i really hope it happens. :D
yay. 誰受得了!?

Dienstag, Dezember 19

taiwan trip part 3 10:51 AM

Day 6 (6 dec, wed)
Waking up at 5am was not an easy feat man. Argh. And I was shivering the night before. Had to keep a warm pack beside me. It was freezing! Anyway, it was 5 deg in the morning outside. And totally dark. We had plans to take the train to another mountain peak to view the sunrise, but instead, some lady selling breakfast at a cart asked us if we wanted to join a van which conducted the tours up to Tataka Mountain and Yushan Mountain, which I read was negative temperatures on colder days! Argh.

Then we sat this minibus tour thing for NT250. heard from the forums that it was NT300. So yeah. Saved 2.50. haha! Then stopped by some places along the way. Some visuals:

Then at about 6-7 we stopped by this long stretch of road, and joined many other people watching the same sunrise that came along with other minibuses. There was like 50 people at the same spot!?

See!

sheesh. Haha but it was a magnificent sunrise. It just happens in that few seconds you know. Take a look at this video:

Damn nice la. The most magnificent thing I’ve ever seen my whole life. And our tour guide/bus driver was more experienced. Another guy was at the other end saying that the sun would come out from there, but our guide said it was towards the right side. Haha a lot of other tourists flocked to the other side to believe that guy. Tsk. Eventually, our guide was right. And it was so pretty! Ahhhh! And freezing cold too. and we saw some monkeys which snatched some lady's plums in the vehicle behind. =/

So after that, we started back towards the main Alishan area, stopping at some sacred tree and some couple tree thing. On the way at the sacred tree some stall vendors were selling things like plums and raisins! Bought more food back again! But the plums are the nicest ever! Not too sour and they’re chewy too! Haha.

And today was 滿月 so nice! The moon was super round before the sun rose. Pretty!

After that came back at around 9am and then walked another trail which we didn’t cover the day before. The trail’s pretty short actually.

other things we saw on the other trail:

Then came back for lunch and some last min food shopping before going on the Alishan Forest Railway! Haha its super small la. Each aisle has like 3 seats only. And track goes in a Z-shape. So you feel like you’re going forward, and then backward! A really cool experience! So after the eventual stop in Chiayi, they will turn the seats around to face the other side! Haha. After Chiayi, we took a train towards Kaohsiung 高雄!

Reached when it was dark already. Checked into Kingstown hotel which was right opposite the train station. It’s a nice business hotel. The most ‘posh’ one out of this whole trip.

My impression of Kaohsiung has since changed man. The city’s horribly polluted! Argh. It felt like Singapore having her haze once again. Sigh…so that night we went to Liu Ho Night Market 六合夜市. Nothing much to buy there. Its mostly food. Had my 花枝須 that 陳宏 recommended on the travelogue! Its nice and Q. haha. And then the Taiwanese were having their elections in Taipei and Kaohsiung then. But then it wasn’t such a big thing in Taipei. But in Kaohsiung, haha. It was like HUGE. We saw 陳菊 and some other candidate at Liu Ho. Pretty cool huh. To experience a different political thing, you know.

Then after everything, they’d release firecrackers or fireworks to like celebrate it I guess.

The fireworks at Liu Ho:

Later, we went to the Love River 愛河 and took a cruise down the river, before going back to the hotel. cabbed back cos we were tooo tired. ahaa.

Day 7 (7 dec, thurs)
It’s been almost 1 week since I arrived in Taiwan. In the morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then went to take a ferry to Chi Chin Island. 旗津島, Which was 5 mins away by the ferry, seemed like another Pulau Ubin to me.

Ok it was much nicer than Pulau Ubin, as in more industrialized, just a smaller island than Kaohsiung la. And it was SUPER SCORCHING HOT that day. Oh ya. Dunno what’s with Kaohsiung la. The temperature there is the same as Singapore. Like almost 30 deg! Sheesh. It doesn’t feel like winter at all. Ok maybe at night when it drops to 23 deg, that’s all. =/

So ya. Cousin was complaining of the heat and all so didn’t walk much along the coastline. But it was really nice! Bought yx here 檳榔 but its like spoilt now. Haha rotten already. Then walked around the island and had fresh seafood for lunch.

After lunch we headed back to the main Kaohsiung Island and then went to Xinjuejiang Shopping District 新掘江商圈 to shop. Its almost like Ximending also la. Pretty nice place to shop with lotsa discounts! Woooot. Ahaha.

Bought my Winnie the pooh stuff from watsons. The watsons there is so much better la. They’ve got much more cool stuff, esp since they’re having some pooh promo there. There are way loads more pooh collectibles there than in Singapore. And I bought a pooh musical box! So nice. Haha. And an umbrella, a jewelry box, a hand-carry thing and… ya! All reasonable prices. Was so tempted to buy the huge luggage! Sob. So nice and worth it too! But its quite impractical la. L

Then after that walked back and had to reach the hotel by about 5 cos we had a train to catch to Hualien. the walk was super long la! sheesh. anyway i bought my Mister Donut! haha its really nice, think its nicer than Dunkin' Donuts. no wonder the queue for M.D at NYNY is never ending. lol. yep, was supposed to go to Hualien Friday morning but then the train tix were sold out. And there were like only 3 direct trains there. (well, cant expect much when you’re traveling south to north) so we had to take an alternative which was to Tainan before changing to Hualien.

The train ride was long. About 6-7 hours! Argh. And being squashed in the seats with the luggage and no leg space was horrid. That’s one thing lousy for tw trains. They’ve got no space for you to put your huge luggages. Except to stuff it in your leg space. The last row has an advantage cos there’s some space for you to put your luggage but that’s like minimal only. Bleah.

Reached Hualien at about 1 am close to 2, cabbed to the minsu and realized the cabby took 1 whole big round. Dammit. Got cheated. It happened in Kaohsiung too. Gahhh~
so nothing much today. went back and watched more tv before sleeping at close to 3. ahha.

xxxxx

ahhh. ok i only updated until here so day 7 is missing out its pix.. shall finish up the rest asap so i can start on my holiday homework soooon! dammit. 64 qns of math, 20 qns + mcq of phy and econs and hist essay qns.

someone just kill me, oh wait.
grace and i have agreed to kill each other already.
yay.

Montag, Dezember 18

taiwan trip part 2 11:33 AM

argh argh argh i want my laptop nowwwwwwww. dale got a router and another external hard disk for us! yay.

ok. i'm praying it wont die on me again. OH MY PICTURES! *heart pain*

Day 3 (3 dec, sun)
Today was a pretty horrible day. Cos it was kinda wet and all, so itinerary had to be changed again. We decided to go to the Taipei City Hall Station area which consisted of the Taipei 101, NewYorkNewYork 紐約紐約, Neo19, Warner Village 華納威秀, Shinkong Mitsukoshi 新光三越 etc.

Went early to the Eslite building. It was a 7 storey bookstore or something like that. Just like our Kino. They have lotsa cool stuff, especially for comic lovers cos they have SHELVES of comic books there. Think you’ll get crazy looking for the comic book you want. So anw, tried helping elis find her comic book but obviously I got frustrated looking at all the shelves, like a dozen or more. But I found some very nice Doraemon ones so I got them! Haha. Here’s the view of Taipei 101 from the Eslite building. It was much nicer from here cos right under it you cant fit the whole building into the picture. Lol.

Then later, went down to the Shinkong Mitsukoshi Departmental Stores, and shopped for a lot of stuff. Well, cousin did. I hardly bought anything cos it was so expensive. It’s like our Taka here la. Selling all those branded goods like Chanel, LV, Coach etc. yep. Then walked that area... Warner Village, NYNY etc. got mum the fragrance oil burner. Haha. And eh some small stuff for myself which I forgot what it was.

Had nice steamboat lunch at 新光三越! It was quite cold that day. Haha and my steamboat was delicious! Affordable for some top-end departmental store food court somemore! It was NT128 which is about 6.50?

after shopping till about 3 or 4, we left for eh. Some hot spring in Beitou by cab... got forced to go there by cousin. But first went back to hotel to dump our goods. The road up to Beitou (it seemed to be situated on a small hill?) was scary. The roads were damn tiny! And many people there were so skillful to reverse down a slope using manual operation! Whoa. Cool huh. Anyway, about the hot spring, oh well, it turned out to be quite nice la. It was called some Asia Pacific Resort? 亞太溫泉生活管 or something like that [check it out here!] yep. You can see at this link. Cool huh, its jap designed. The ambience was nice. And we took a private one. It was quite ex for like 1 hr inside the private one and another free hour in the public one. Think it was NT600 (divide by 20)? Cousin volunteered to pay for half since I was quite unwilling. Heh. But it was a good experience. Relieved all my tensions and relaxed my tensed muscles from all the walking from the previous days. Yep. Heehee. The sulphur smell from the spring water was quite disgusting though. And it was quite hot at first but soothing after that.

Headed down to Shilin Night Market士林夜市 for more shopping and eats! I think Shilin is one of the best night markets Taiwan has. Haha, it’s the most famous one too. Yep. Had my wonderful 豪大雞排! Yummy la. Nothing can beat it. Bought lots of stuff there. Tiny accessories, and my new Nike dunks! They’re purple! And such a good bargain! S$60 only! NT1200! Haha. Coolness. Carried on my socks craze again. Sheesh. Haha.

Then walked till late and avoided taking the last train back to Ximen unlike yesterday. Lol. We went back to hotel and watched the 剪刀石頭布 repeat! And my 天才衝衝衝! Hooked onto it le… argh.

Day 4 (4 dec, mon)
Ok, we headed out of Taipei today. Woke up super early to catch the 7am bus to Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 in Taichung. The journey was quite long. Like 3.5hrs? I think. Then reached the beautiful place nearing noon. Take this:

and the smaller but more populated town area:

stayed at Laurelvilla Minsu. The guy was nice. It’s a family-run business. Haha. The little boy was uber cute, the guy’s son. And his family was so 親切. You guys should go there and stay! And the price is reasonable too. So anyway, planned our day’s schedule there, under the guy’s recommendations.

Oh, there was a 7-11 there. And obviously, my first stop of the day. Haha im addicted to Taiwan’s 7-11 la. Everyday sure go at least once to get drinks/food. Haha, but mostly drinks. You are seriously spoilt for choice there. I’d take at least 5 mins to decide what drink to get la! So many nice drinks, though I’d end up with my 奶茶. Haha. And there’s even a STARBUCKS there. Surprising. Haha.

First up, we climbed Maolan Hill貓蘭山. It was super tiring. Although flat ground, the sun was glaring hot. But good exercise anyhow. And then walked the 紅葉步道 at half peak. Couldn’t walk up anymore. Haha.

Then after about a 2 hr hike, came back to the minsu for our boat trip around Sun Moon Lake which would take the rest of the afternoon. Met a Singaporean family on the boat too. So eventually we toured the lake, stopped at some smaller island within the lake, which had a lake in it too. Haha cute huh.

Forgot what the island was called. =/ oh ok. I just checked my map. Its called 拉魯島.

cute place huh. Haha. So we went around the lake, going to some places surrounding the lake such as (ok, mind me cos I don’t know what they’re called in English):

玄光寺 and some kelong-like place where we could feed catfish!

Yep. Saw the sunset there.

No wonder its called Sun Moon Lake, cos the lake is pretty big, when the sun sets, the moon is up already. So at the same time, you’ll see the sun AND the moon within the proximity of the whole lake. Cool huh.

After that, we kinda walked the whole area of Sun Moon Lake already. And dinner was included in the package of the tour and accommodation. Whoa I had one of the nicest home-cooked dinners in my life! They had some weird looking vege with tiny thorns which kinda looked a little like aloe vera, but they fried it and it was crunchy and all! And there was sweet potato fried in tempura flour! Yummy! Including some sweet and sour pork. Whoa. Cool.

Then went back to our rooms to watch more tv. Haha. Oh wells. The disadvantage of winter, when dusk falls, you hardly can see anything. Suburban areas outside the cities hardly have any night life. So tv it is.

Day 5 (5 dec, tues)
Woke up early once again to embark on our journey to Alishan. Whoa we had to take like a bus to Shuili 水里. Then from the 水里, we took a train to Ershui二水. And then from there, a train to Chiayi 嘉義 and then finally from Chiayi, a bus up to Alishan.

Hectic huh. Haha! Oh. Some cool thing happened. I saw X and X’s grandma on the train to 二水. Then at 二水, X took a slower train to 嘉義, while we waited for 自強 (the fastest train type on the Taiwan railway). And then so ‘miraculously’ I saw X again at Chiayi! Whoooa. Coolness la. Haha.

Ok. Right.

So the journey up to Alishan 阿里山 was about 2 hrs. The roads there are quite advanced! They had some barricade thing to prevent vehicles from steering off the slope. I was quite scared at first cos the previous morning, there was news of the horrific bus accident in Tainan I think. Killed 24, injured 22. (Or maybe it was the other way round, anyhow, it’s a big number.) The bus couldn’t brake in time and steered off the path down the slope. So scary! And somemore, it was a bus filled with KIDS. Young lives lost just like that. And the news was showing on the bus to Sun Moon Lake. And worse still, Alishan was like 2000+ m above sea level. Whoa. Scary.

But we reached in 1 piece. The temperature was quite cool, but not as cold as I expected it to be. Oh well, its 暖冬 there this year, so it was meant to be warmer than normal winters. Think it was about 13 deg when we reached. Then went to the minsu we booked. Think it was called Shin Shin minsu or something like that. Can’t blame it for looking a tad little tacky. The price was reasonable la.

Had beef noodles for lunch! And argh. There were so many roaming dogs around. Those mongrel type. And this dog was eyeing my beef noodle. I got so disturbed I left almost half bowl untouched. =/ ohwells. The dog was scary.

After that, started to trek the Alishan trails.

the trails were steep. But the forestry was magnificent. Never in my life did I see so many trees present in my view. Haha. Here are some pics:

It was quite easy to navigate around, since there were signboards everywhere. And the signboards were deceiving. It looked far on the map but it was actually quite near. Haha. No scale to measure anyway. Think we trekked close to 10km around the whole place that day. But it was cool within the forest. So the weather was great for trekking. Sadly, there were no pretty flowers in bloom since it was winter. :) More pics:

we saw many magnificent forestry, some cool temples, monuments, trees looking like elephants and all those stuff. Haha.

wah was really tired after the whole day of trekking. Went back to this main area, which looked something like this:

and then we got some food stuffs to bring back to sg. Haha the muahchee was nice! But in the end, we got so sick of it. There’s this shop called 阿里山日出. Damn nice the food there! And the packaging is super chio too! Got tea for Laoshi and more stuff for Godpa and my family. And I finally bought the renowned wasabi! And its really damn nice. Haha it tastes so much different from the usual one we usually eat. Its more smoother, and there’s a totally opposite kick you’ll get. Its more harsh, but the texture just complements it la. Yeah. Anyone wants to try? I’ll give free samples! Haha. But it lasts for a lesser time. Like 1 year before expiring. Oh wells. I’ve got quite a big bottle to finish. And it’s of reasonable pricing too!

Oh. We aborted our plan to go to Fencihu 奮起湖 cos it was actually a few train stops away. Yep. And the stupid travelogue I watched (the 鉄錠好玩 hosted by Ann Kok and Tay Ping Hui) gave me the impression that it was within the same area. And boy was I wrong. L sigh. That place seems to be more tourists infected. Something like Jiufen style, with all the 老街 and stuff.

And yep. Eventually lugged a lot of food back. Then went for some stone steamboat dinner nearby. It seems like the people there eat super early. Cos we went at about 7.30 and we were the last customers? Ok la, it was some small town and seriously, I think there was less than 100 people up on that mountain town there. Haha. And 1 miserable convenience store! Hi-Life. But they are so advanced to have a convenience store there! Cool huh! Came back to the minsu to watch more tv. Haha. My scissors, paper, stone! Ah. 少爺 is just too cute la. Lol. Turned in early cos we had to wake up at 5am the next morning. =/

xxxxx

ok i shall continue tmr. bye.

desired